No other artist in black and white has ever exhibited such tremendous vitality, such seething indignation and wealth of invention as Goya. Born in Spain in 1746, he was well into his 30's before he began producing the work that was to set him aside from his contemporaries.

In all Goya made 268 etchings, 80 of which - the Caprichos - are illustrated here. Completed in 1799, this provocative series analyses the human foibles and frailties of his fellows and directly influenced such artists as Delacroix and Manet with its power of draughtsmanship and inventiveness in composition. Goya's prints for this series have placed him next to Rembrandt as one of the two greatest etchers of all time.

The creatures who haunt Goya's later works are inexpressively horrible. The moral of it all is summed up in the central plate of the Caprichos in which we see Goya himself, his head on his arms, sprawled across his desk and fitfully sleeping, while the air above is peopled with the bats and owls of necromancy and just behind his chair lies an enormous witch's cat, malevolent as only Goya's cats can be, staring at the sleeper with baleful eyes. On the side of the desk are traced the words 'the dream of reason produces monsters'.

Text from an essay by Aldous Huxley